[Clinical probability evaluation models in patients with pulmonary thromboembolism]

The evaluation of the clinical probability (CP) of pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is useful in patients with suspected PTE.

We assessed the CP of PTE using 3 different models (described by Miniati et al., Wells et al. and Wicki et al.) in a series of 154 patients with PTE.

A high CP and a low CP were present in 11.7%, 39% and 14.3%, and in 0.6%, 0% and 1.9% of patients with PTE according to the first, second and third models, respectively. The frequency of high CP was not significantly different between patients older or younger than 70 years, between both sexes, nor between patients with or without cardiopulmonary disease. There was, however, a significantly lower frequency of high CP, according to the second model, in patients older than 70 years (31.1% vs 50%, p = 0.03).

The CP evaluation models studied are comparable. A low CP makes highly improbable a diagnosis of PTE. Only up to approximately one third of patients with PTE hare a high CP.